Iron Cross

Marshal Brooke's description clearly outlines the current situation of the war in Africa:

After Germany's air raid on the port of Mombasa and the occupation of Pemba Island and Zanzibar Island, the Kenyan coast, including Mombasa, was completely blocked. At this time, there were nearly 70,000 British and American African theater troops stranded in Kenya, and the demand for various materials was extremely urgent. Food in Kenya can basically be solved locally, but other combat resources are in short supply, especially the British troops retreating from Egypt and Patton and other troops retreating from the Horn of Africa. Except for their light weapons, they have almost become unarmed soldiers. In addition to a large number of wounded and other civilians, the African theater is in urgent need of fuel, medicine, weapons and other supplies.

The sea route to Kenya has been cut off by the Axis Navy. The land distance from South Africa to Kenya is more than 5,000 kilometers, and there is basically no systematic railway or road network to use. The "American Logistics Company" had no choice but to quickly organize air transportation-a large amount of materials were supplied by air, and an African route across Cape Town, South Africa and Nairobi, Kenya was built. Because the straight-line distance of the entire route is too long (more than 4,000 kilometers), a refueling transfer station was specially set up in the middle of the way - the location was chosen in Zambia.

All the B-17, B-25, B-24 and C-47 models in South Africa and those stranded in Kenya were put into transportation, totaling nearly 200 aircraft. Because the entire route is too long, no fighter can provide full escort. In addition to some fighters and air defense forces left at the Zambian transit airport to prevent enemy harassment, the rest of the journey depends on the bombers or transport planes performing transportation missions to fly by themselves.

The only thing the Allies were thankful for was that, since the entire route ran through the interior of Africa, the closest point was more than 600 kilometers away from the German-controlled base, and the bombers and transport planes flew at relatively high altitudes, the Bf-219s with the longest range in the German naval aviation that controlled Pemba Island and Zanzibar Island were not suitable for such interception missions. Only the Fw-190A with auxiliary fuel tanks could sneak attack on the route, but after several attempts, the Germans found that the effect was not good - although the American fleet had no escort, the dense formation of self-defense firepower made the limited Fw-190 pilots feel that they could not do anything when facing a porcupine.

The results of the fight were not great, and several Fw-190s were lost. The situation was reported to Hoffman, who reasonably stated that the focus of the naval aviation was to control the coastal areas and not let British and American transport ships pass by, because the material transportation volume of a ship was equal to the half-month transportation volume of the Allied aircraft, and the air supply was left to the Americans to toss - he personally did not think it was a good idea. With the clear instructions of the head of state and the practical difficulties, German pilots would attack when they were in a good mood, but they would not bother to look at it when they were in a bad mood. In the past one or two days, they have gradually given up such interception missions and are too lazy to even move.

In fact, the US Army Aviation has made a name for itself. When the weather is good, more than 100 flights can arrive in Kenya from South Africa every other day on the African route, and the average daily air transport volume can reach 500-600 tons. Although there is no need to airdrop food for 70,000 people, a large part of the transportation scale is fuel and must be consumed in the middle of the journey. Therefore, the actual supply that can be obtained in the African theater does not exceed 200 tons per day. The German Supreme Command has made an estimate of this and believes that the harm is not great - the African theater cannot maintain the combat of more than 50,000 troops with this level of material supply.

The Americans did not give up and tried to secretly transport supplies to Kenya through fast merchant ships, but on the one hand, German planes and U-boats were keeping a close eye on them, and almost no merchant ships could reach the Kenyan coast alive; on the other hand, the port of Mombasa had been completely destroyed and it was almost impossible to transport unless an artificial dock was built first. After evaluation, the African theater of operations believed that the effect was too slow and could not meet the urgent needs. In the end, they chose to transport the troops completely by air. Otherwise, with the existing bomber fleet, if the United States really considered building an artificial dock, it could launch large-scale air strikes on the German troops in Pemba Island and Zanzibar.

What reassured the British and American sides was that a large number of wounded and sick soldiers were evacuated to South Africa with the fleet: after ten days of efforts, nearly 2,000 wounded soldiers were evacuated from Kenya and sent to South Africa for treatment - this ensured the morale of the troops, and then they would evacuate more than 3,000 civilians stranded in Kenya - most of them were colonial officials and expatriates from Egypt, Somalia, Sudan, and Kenya, and they were all waiting in line for planes to South Africa.

Lieutenant General Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of the African Theater, believed that his ability to command wars was not as good as Patton's, but he was very adept at this job. As a result, the top leaders of the headquarters quickly formed a tacit division of labor. Eisenhower took charge of the overall situation and focused on logistics and management, while Patton and Ramsden took charge of the training and reorganization of British and American officers and soldiers. After the initial panic, most of the troops stabilized and various systems and organizations were gradually restored.

The overall situation in the African theater stabilized, but an episode occurred during this period: the Australian and New Zealand troops, who had suffered unfair treatment many times, proposed that although Lumsden was a good officer, they no longer wanted to associate with the British troops and asked to join US military sequence. This was a big blow to Great Britain's reputation, and a lot of people internally criticized Churchill for this incident, but he had put all the blame on Admiral Alexander. After coordination between London, Washington, Canberra, Wellington and other parties, it was finally agreed that the Australian and New Zealand troops would be added to Patton's 2nd Armored Division, and the British troops that had withdrawn from Egypt and other parties would be added to the British 78th Division - because of the division's The division commander had been killed in action, and Ramsden temporarily assumed the post of corps commander. As a result, the African theater has a total of 5 divisions. The strength is barely full, but the equipment is really far behind. Especially the 2nd Armored Division, which bears the name of an armored division and does not even have a tank or a tank. There was no armored vehicle, and it was almost an out-and-out light infantry division. Finally, Eisenhower evened out heavy equipment including 40 tanks, 50 armored vehicles, and 80 artillery pieces from other units and handed them to the Second Armored Division. .

The supply problem has temporarily eased, but the situation in Africa is getting worse.

Brooke said in an anxious tone: "After the Germans captured Khartoum and overwhelmed the local forces in Sudan, they moved their troops to the border between Sudan and Ethiopia. Emperor Haile Selassie has been resisting, but this time they came Obviously not the clumsy Italians, but Guderian's most famous armored forces. Those Ethiopian troops whose equipment is not much better than the Chinese army may not be able to sustain it for long. The border troops have retreated one after another, although Addis Ababa is still there. But it will fall sooner or later."

Originally, Churchill had a plan to relocate the Australian and New Zealand troops to Addis Ababa to assist the Ethiopians in resisting the German army and buy time for the deployment and reinforcement of the African theater of war. Although Ramsden argued that the troops would be sent from Egypt. The Australian and New Zealand troops, which had been pursued by the Germans and were severely lacking in equipment, had no chance of completing this task. However, London still insisted on its own opinion. As a result, the extremely angry chief officers of the Australian and New Zealand divisions decided to "walk alone", not only directly pulling The two division commanders thought clearly - after the "mutiny" in Aswan, they thought again of Churchill. It is impossible to make peace with the British, so we should just stick to the end and directly ask to join the US military.

They were confident in doing this - not only did all the soldiers express their support, but they also aroused huge anger after crying to the democratically elected members of Australia and New Zealand. Some people even asked why they should send troops to Europe to participate in the war? The Germans didn't attack us. Therefore, the whole matter had to be abandoned in the end, and the British troops retreated south together - and this violated Churchill's original promise to the Ethiopians, making him a human being inside and outside, and he had to be questioned by members of Congress again. .

Everyone at the meeting didn't understand why the Germans had to waste time and effort to fight for the Italians, but no one was optimistic about Ethiopia's prospects. They estimated that the entire territory of Ethiopia would not fall for more than half a month, and further south would be Kenya.

The military leaders represented by Marshal Brooke came to the conclusion after careful study: To save the African theater, air supplies alone would not be enough. Even if the African theater is now fully equipped with personnel, it may not be possible to defeat the German African Army Group. Therefore, additional troops must be added. Then they hoped that the United States would send more troops to Africa on the grounds that the number of British ground troops was extremely short and the armored troops were still training. The subtext is obvious. If the United States is unable or unwilling to increase its troops, the African theater can now start considering retreating to South Africa.

Unexpectedly, President Roosevelt and the U.S. military actually agreed to the troop increase plan, but in turn the British army was suppressed: the United States could mobilize non-army troops to aid, but the main force of the U.S. Navy must deal with the Japanese in the Pacific. It was hoped that the British would send corresponding troops. Naval power - anyway, after the British capital ships can be put into use after withdrawing from the Pacific battlefield, and the U.S. Atlantic Fleet sends other warships, the African aid campaign can be launched.

The Americans made it very clear: the Royal Navy's battleships do not have many combat missions now, and the main force of the Japanese Navy has entered the Mediterranean. The Axis may launch a Malta campaign. The fall of Malta is inevitable, but it is a campaign to aid Africa. During the optimal gap period, if Britain is willing to assume this responsibility, the United States can return one more King George V battleship to the United States.

This counter-proposal hit the British weakness. In order to increase the number of troops, sea lines of communication must be opened up. A naval battle was inevitable. Churchill originally hoped to bring the main force of the Pacific Fleet over, but the Americans obviously did not think so, so the Royal Navy was forced to We must consider relying on existing forces to carry out the Kenyan landing campaign.